Italy to swap us$ 55 million Moroccan debt into investments

An Italian delegation is visiting Morocco to sign this Monday a bilateral agreement to swap a total of US$ 55 million of Moroccan public debt into investments, the Italian embassy announced.

This amount is part of an agreement signed in April 2000 during a visit by King Mohammed VI to Italy to convert into investments US$ 100 million of Moroccan public debt owed to Italy. Investments will be carried out in "socio-economic development" projects in poorest regions.

The first batch will exclusively go to projects in the rural world, mainly farming projects, drinking water facilities, roads, schools and health.